It has been less than 70 days since the Icicle Kick seen around the world, but the Canadian Premier League already looks remarkably different.
In fact, with Cavalry FC announcing the signing of Amer Didić on Thursday, that makes it two star Atlético Ottawa players who have now joined the team they defeated in the 2025 CPL Final. Goalkeeper Nathan Ingham signed with the Cavs earlier in the off-season.
As the CPL approaches its eighth season, the league already has a strong history of eyebrow-raising intra-league moves. In fact, this isn’t even the first time that a team has lost a final and then recruited two of their rival’s top players.
In a small league with a lot of familiarity, these signings are made all the more intriguing by the fact that a player who switches sides has to face his former team at a minimum four times during a CPL campaign. Two of those would be dreaded trips to his previous stomping grounds.
Here are nine of the most shocking signings in CPL history, a few of which have come in the past few weeks:
Hojabrpour and Campbell join Forge FC after 2021 Final
If you can’t beat 'em, recruit 'em. Just over a month following a 1-0 loss to Pacific FC in the 2021 CPL Final at home, Forge announced the signing of the man who scored for the Tridents in that game, Alessandro Hojabrpour, and Pacific FC’s leading scorer, Terran Campbell.
The move cemented Forge’s reputation as one of the CPL’s top dogs, and officially paid off a year later when Hojabrpour opened the scoring in the 2022 Final, which Forge won 2-0 against Atlético Ottawa.
Both players went on to win two championships with the Hammers, and Hojabrpour remains one of the club's most important players.
Callum Irving crosses the Salish Sea
A provincial rivalry between Vancouver FC and Pacific FC was always likely, but the Eagles added fuel to the fire when they made former Tridents legend Callum Irving their inaugural signing ahead of the 2024 CPL season.
Irving wasn't the last to jump across the water; Kadin Chung, Kunle-Dada Luke, Terran Campbell, and Alejandro Díaz have all played for both clubs. But none have been as integral to Vancouver FC as the 32-year-old Vancouver-born goalkeeper, who has worn the captain's armband in all but one of the matches in VFC history.
CPL champ Ingham joins Cavalry
With his snow shovelling, his huge saves in the final and captaining Atlético Ottawa to its first championship, Nate Ingham’s popularity in the nation’s capital was at an all-time high. But as the season concluded and his contract expired, one question remained: would he be back for 2026?
Not only was the answer to that question no, but Ingham ultimately signed with the team he had just helped defeat in the 2025 final, Cavalry FC. Having played for Calgary Foothills in 2018 prior to the CPL’s inaugural season, the connection with Tommy Wheeldon Jr. was there, but it remains a pretty surprising destination for the 2025 Golden Glove nominee.
Sam Salter becomes the CPL's first intraleague transfer
We’ve discussed spice, now, how about a little bit of salt? Following a year in Halifax where he led the club in goals with 11, Salter became the league’s first intraleague transfer when Atlético Ottawa bought him ahead of the 2023 season.
The true impact of the move took a while to materialize, as Atleti missed the playoffs in Salter’s first season with the club in 2023 and he played second fiddle to Rubén del Campo in 2024.
This past season, however, Salter set the league alight with a CPL-record 19 goals, winning the league’s Golden Boot, Player of the Year, Players’ Player of the Year and capping it off with a CPL championship.
Olliewood moves south
For three seasons, the hill overlooking TD Place displayed a sign that said ‘Olliewood’, an ode to Atleti’s star player, Ollie Bassett. The Northern Ireland youth international joined the club in 2022 from CPL champions Pacific FC and went on to win the league’s Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year, all while Atlético Ottawa won the regular season and hosted its first final.
But after departing the club in 2025 to join the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the USL Championship, Ollie Bassett return to the league in November and the Olliewood sign got a controversial new area code. In November, Bassett signed with Atleti’s rivals Inter Toronto, adding even more bad blood to an already vicious rivalry.
Forge add Babouli and Wright
If you’ve noticed a bit of a theme here, it is that Forge FC have made a history of big swings during the winter signing window. So when photos emerged of former York United (now Inter Toronto) pair Brian Wright and Mo Babouli training with Forge during preseason ahead of the 2025 season, it was pretty par for the course.
Wright was coming off a year where he won the league’s Players’ Player of the Year award while playing for Toronto, while Babouli was the team’s second leading goalscorer. Both Wright and Babouli had solid years in Orange this year, with the former leading the team in goals with 12, and Babouli adding four of his own.
Carducci leaves Cavalry for Halifax
In terms of legacies built in the CPL, it's hard to top that which Marco Carducci left in Calgary. A day one member of Cavalry FC, he won CPL championship, a CPL Shield and two Golden Gloves earned while captaining his hometown team and being the face of the club on and off the pitch.
Now, CPL fans are going to have to adjust to watching him between the sticks in Halifax, as Carducci signed with the Wanderers on Dec. 22. The fact that he chose to leave Cavalry for another CPL club remains at least a little surprising, but is a huge gain for the Wanderers.
Dan Nimick to Forge
When Dan Nimick departed Halifax after two solid seasons with the Wanderers, it felt like he might be looking for a new challenge – potentially one outside of the league. So the announcement that Nimick had signed with Forge drew a lot of ire from fans on the East Coast.
Nimick, however, could not have settled in better in Hamilton, winning the league’s Defender of the Year award for 2025 and helping Forge to a regular season title, during which they allowed just 22 goals in 28 matches and broke the league’s clean sheet record.
Aparicio headlines the ‘Atlético Superteam’
During the 2024 off-season, Atlético Ottawa undertook arguably the greatest winter of recruitment in CPL history, earning a ‘superteam’ moniker for the talent they ultimately assembled.
Starting with reigning CPL Best U-21 Canadian Player Matteo de Brienne, they also brought back Ballou Tabla, added Rayane Yesli, recruited former CPL champions Aboubacar Sissoko and Johnny Grant, and brought in Kevin Dos Santos and Amer Didić.
The truly foundational piece that they added, however, was Manny Aparicio, who after three seasons and a CPL title with Pacific, decided it was time for a new challenge. One of the league’s best midfielders, Aparicio has since brought a title to the nation’s capital as well.
